NEW ORLEANS — After winning its previous four games to become bowl eligible, Southern Mississippi needed one last rally to extend its streak of seasons without a losing record to 15.

Michael McGee blocked a potential game-tying field goal attempt in overtime, lifting Southern Mississippi to a 30-27 comeback victory over Troy in the New Orleans Bowl last night.

Troy held Southern Miss to Britt Barefoot's 39-yard field goal on the first possession of OT, but that wound up being enough for the Golden Eagles to win their third New Orleans Bowl in as many appearances.

McGee knifed in from the left end, diving as he smothered Sam Glusman's 28-yard kick to clinch the win.

"I was trying my best to get there and by the time I got 3 yards away from the ball, I didn't see nobody trying to block down on me, so I just dove and gave it my all," McGee said.

Southern Miss (7-6) finished the season with a five-game winning streak.

"I just can't say how proud I am of this whole football team," first-year Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora said. "They were probably the only ones out there that really believed we would get it done. They never gave up, they believed in the coaches. ... They grew and they became a heck of a football team."

The Trojans (8-5), winners of the Sun Belt Conference, led 27-17 after Jerrel Jernigan's 6-yard touchdown run late in the third quarter.

Southern Miss began its comeback when Austin Davis rolled out on fourth-and-2 and lofted a 35-yard touchdown to tight end Jonathan Massey with 7:20 left in regulation.

"The day I took the job I said we were going to attack ... and we've had that philosophy all year," Fedora said. "That's a play we've worked and executed numerous times in practice and that's not the first time we've hit that play in a game so I don't think it was that big of a risk to be honest."

Barefoot tied it with his 46-yard field goal with 2:50 to go.

EASTERN MICHIGAN

ENGLISH HIRED AS COACH

Eastern Michigan has hired Ron English, making him the fifth black head football coach in major college football, a person familiar with the contract agreement told The Associated Press yesterday.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because the school hasn't announced its decision.

Eastern Michigan scheduled a news conference for today.

English replaces Jeff Genyk, who was fired last month and went 16-42 in five seasons.

English, 40, was Louisville's defensive coordinator in 2008 after serving on Lloyd Carr's staff at Michigan for five seasons.

English turned around the Cardinals' inexperienced defense before an injury-depleted unit was overmatched in a lopsided loss to end the season at Rutgers.

The other black coaches among the 119 teams in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision are Buffalo's Turner Gill, Miami's Randy Shannon, Houston's Kevin Sumlin and New Mexico's Mike Locksley.

ELSEWHERE

Duke: The Blue Devils gave head coach David Cutcliffe a two-year contract extension. Terms of the deal, which now runs through 2015, were not released. Athletic director Kevin White called Cutcliffe "an elite player within the entire college football coaching community." By going 4-8 this season, Duke matched its win total from 2004-07.

TCU: The No. 11 Horned Frogs might play without standout linebacker Robert Henson in the Poinsettia Bowl tomorrow night against No. 9 Boise State. Henson, who did not practice Saturday, was a first-team all-Mountain West Conference selection this season.